For RF power generators that operate in pulsed operation, the switching-on edge of the RF power, i.e. the edge of the envelope of the output signal of the RF power generator, is in general an important criterion. There are also applications in which it is useful to interrupt the pulses within a minimum time. One example of such an application is the operation of opto-acoustic Q-switches in pulsed inscription lasers. In this case, for example, the 27 MHz RF power of the RF power generator is supposed to drop at the pulse end within maximally 100 ns, i.e., 2.5 oscillating periods from 50 W to less than 50 mW. One problem with the use of a resonance amplifier consists in that two quality features depend on the quality of the output oscillating circuit. The spectral purity of the output signal increases with increasing quality as does the dying down period upon switching off.
DE 199 29 332 A1 discloses a driver for a Q-switch or other acousto-optical components for laser applications. The driver includes a radio frequency oscillator and an amplifier fed with the signal of the radio frequency oscillator for driving the acousto-optical component, having a bandwidth which exceeds several times the frequency of the radio frequency oscillator, and a control input for setting the amplification of the amplifier to control the influence on a laser beam by the acousto-optical component. This approach uses an amplifier with a very large bandwidth that controls the higher frequency portions contained in steep signal edges to a sufficient degree.